Customer Reviews

God's Favorite Band

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

While this CD is a solid entertaining effort from the SPankers as usual It is a bit disappointing this wasn't advertised or the early press did not explain what it really is. This is not a truely new studio album. It's a live recording from 2006 :-/ So it is even an older recording than their last release which was a double live CD. Hopefully they will follow up with a new CD soon with he current line up.

The Spankers are a lot of fun. I've never seen them in person but their "live" Dvds are a lot of fun and, when they play instrumentals you can see them at work. This CD is strange. Not that the band isn't. That's the fun part of enjoying them. But this album contains six traditional or standard gospel songs, done straight - with no standout playing - and a bunch of originals (not very clever) on the "God" theme. The opening track - a Blind Willie Johnson song sung at the slowest pace ever by Gyt Forsythe - is actually painful to listen to.

This was recorded in front of an audience in 2006 - it's not current - and I can only wonder what they thought they were going to hear. Okay, it's NOW 2010. Let's chalk this one up to - what? - experience, move on to a NEW ASS album. Don't judge these guys by this CD.

Steve Ramm
"Anything Pgonographic"

Guy Forsyth is back. Need I say more?

OK, maybe I do.

As likely the swan song for the Spankers (unless they cut a CD from the "Spanks for Everything" farewell tour--and I wish they would), the album showcases the vocal range and musical depth of Christina, Wammo, Charlie, Guy, Nevada, Stanley(!) and Sick (the only band member I've never seen perform live). If you like resonator guitar played by a master, you'll love Guy's work throughout the album. If you like old-time spirituals delivered by some of the strongest vocalists you're likely to hear today, you'll love the ones they've selected (particularly the ones sung by Christina), but you might be a bit non-plused by Wammo's secular original compositions--maybe they're a little hokey at times ("with Jesus his jack and Buddha his spare"?), but can anyone deny that Wammo's still got pipes after hearing "Right and Wrong"?

It's also probably the most family friendly album they've produced since "Mommy Says No" (which did have mother pheasants, after all).

Now, I can't deny being a huge Spanker fan, but my wife, who is more Spanker-neutral, loved the songs from the album that they performed last time we saw them live.

So, if you love musicality, virtuoso-level voices and instrumentation, as well as a rousing set of amazing tunes, you should love the album. If you're a Spanker fan but prefer "Dirty Ditties" over, say, "Spanks for the Memories", you may like it more than love it. Obviously, I loved it.

I'm not normally a Gospel music buyer, but I was intrieged about it when I hear about it on NPR. I bought two albums -- one as gift for my nephew & one for me. We both thought it was terrefic.

I love this CD, but I feel compelled to dispute the claim that it's the world's first agnostic gospel album.
Susan Werner released exactly that a couple of years ago called "The Gospel of Truth."